1003 samples in Andorra, a country with a tiny population, but only 1959 samples in China, a country with a population of 1,35 billion people.
Measuring success
While many indices exist to measure happiness, there is no ‘official’ measure for success of people in different countries worldwide. This might be due to the fact, that there is no single, globally accepted definition of success and the perception of success is diverse: professional standing, educational accomplishments, athletic achievement, celebrity status, humanitarian impact, political clout, financial freedom, personal fulfillment, etc.
Few countries have a ‘national notion’ of success, one is Singapore. In Singapore, success is measured by the 5 Cs, a Singaporean acronym for the symbols of material success: car, cash, credit card, and condominium and club membership. In Hong Kong property is the measure of success and makes or breaks a person's fortune – and often happiness.
But there are many examples where it is very questionable if success can be measured in such ways:
Steve Jobs: He dropped out of college after one semester and returned soda bottles for money to buy food. Later on he got fired from a company he helped to found, but, by Forbes estimates, he was worth 8.3 billion USD at the time of his death.
Thomas Edison: He spent a total of three months in public school before being found to be ‘unsuitable for public school’. Thomas Edison was home schooled, never attended college, bounced from one job to another, often being fired.However at the time of his death in 1931 held more than 1,093 patents and had founded four companies including General Electric, which is still in existence today.
Mother Teresa: She never went to medical school, never married and never had children. At some points in her life she begged for food and yet she won a Nobel Peace Prize and established 610 Missions in 123 countries before her death in 1997.
Surprisingly or not, according to the June 2013 Monitor on Psychology, ‘Subjective well-being' measures gain international weight as measures of success![33]
2. Success and happiness in China
2.1 Chinese views on happiness and success and their relationship to food
Confucius said: ‘They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.’ [34]
In China things are changing fast and only the ‘love’ for good food does not. Food and cooking traditionally played a big role in Chinese society, following the ancient teaching that 'food is heaven for people’. Some of the most frequently used words in China are food, eating and success! No wonder, as in China business has long been conducted over banquet tables and every Chinese friend will tell foreigners that no meeting or social gathering is considered complete without a good meal.
The philosopher and writer Lin Yutang[35] wrote about 100 years ago:
‘How a Chinese spirit glows over a good feast! How apt is he to cry out that life is beautiful when his stomach and his intestines are well filled! From this well filled stomach suffuses and radiates a happiness that is spiritual. The Chinese relies upon instinct and his instinct tells him that when the stomach is right, everything is right’.[36]
Food has been and remains an instrument to successful relationships between people at all levels in China. Food is often regarded as a living metaphor that implies power and responsibility over others. About 100 years ago, the Chinese government called the job of the chief executive “making adjustments to the tripods”; a tripod in Chinese refers to a cooking utensil. This term entails adjusting the flavors of the dishes being cooked in order to please customers' tastes. And just like a capable diplomat, the talented cook uses talent and technical skills.
Clever cooks who created outstanding food have had unusual access to power and success throughout Chinese history, for example Yi Yin, who had been a famous cook and slave known as Ah Yeng. He cooked for Emperor Tang, ruler of the Shang Dynasty from 1600 BC till 1100 BC, who became persuaded of Yi's diplomatic and social abilities after eating his dishes. Yi Yin became China's first prime minister and eventually assisted Emperor Tang to destroy Jie, the last ruler of the Xia Dynasty from 2100 BC to 1600 BC.
2.2 History of Chinese happiness and success research
The occupation with happiness in China has a long history and tradition, reaching more than 2300 years back to the Warring States Period from 475 to 221 BC. During that time a man named Mencius laid unprecedented emphasis on human nature and the role of the mind in the quest for happiness.[37] He was born about 190 years after Confucius during the same era as the Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi and the Greek philosopher Plato. Mencius and Confucius shared many characteristics as they were both born in the area of modern Shandong Province, were teachers by profession and they had traveled extensively to provide philosophical and political counsel to various rulers during a very politically tense period. Confucian philosophy is wordy and has been the most powerful influence shaping the Chinese culture and the conceptions of Chinese people for more than 2000 years. According to Confucius’ observations and teachings, happiness could be achieved through knowledge, benevolence and harmony of the group. Mencius has been called by some Chinese scholars the pioneer of positive psychology, because The Book of Mencius provides lengthy debates on happiness, in which he claims that within people lie the ‘sprouts of virtue’, and if people nourish these ‘sprouts’ of identification and sympathy and extend such feelings to broader social and political relationships, they would be filled with a flourishing sense of irrepressible and enthralling joy. Mencius believed that a person had a “lesser self”, the physiological self, and a “greater self”, the moral self, and he was convinced that the mind played a mediating role between those two. Personal fulfillment and happiness would come from getting the priorities right between these two.[38]
Another early piece of work in history devoted to happiness is said to be from Zhuangzi, a Chinese philosopher, who was born about 2,300 years ago. He wrote an essay with the title “Ultimate Happiness,” which is now a chapter of the book named Zhuangzi, after the author. One of his most famous thoughts might be the following: “Instead of running around pointing fingers, why not laugh? Better than laughing why not go along with things? Then you can experience the mysterious oneness of the ‘Dao’. Whereas Confucius placed emphasis on human relationships, Mencius on rationality, Zhuangzhi, and Daoists in general, rejoice in nature, and particularly the mysterious ‘Dao’, which is manifested through our natural surroundings. For Mencius, Buddha and Aristotle, the role of the mind is critical in the quest for happiness. Zhuangzhi and other Daoists, on the other hand, argue that thinking too much is not desirable as it would lead us away from the intuitive Dao. For Zhuangzi, ultimate happiness is wuwei, the skill of doing nothing against the ‘Dao’, which can be translated as “way”. “Dao”, is the source of a much deeper form of happiness, which only needs to be harnessed, as we are in the midst of nature and therefore part of the Dao itself. This is done through the practice of wuwei, which is the skill of “going along with things” (see chapter 4.2)[39]
But despite this long history of Chinese occupation with happiness, research studies on Chinese happiness are not sufficient in terms of extent and depth. The first studies on happiness reach back to 2006 and most recent studies on happiness in China are based on the data collected by academic institutions, for example the China Social Sciences Academy, which are in general not available to the public. Also, their validation is often hard to assess. Relevant literature can be summarized as either theoretical studies or
